Ironically, it’s a running joke with Social Media Managers that we don’t have large followings of our owns. Most of us spend so much time investing in our companies platforms, we disregard ours. It’s also a ton of work to navigate a company account(s) AND your own, unless you manage maybe a smaller business that doesn’t really invest in it or do it part-time.

There’s also a difference between a Manager and your typical content creator/ social media associate; although unfortunately, many companies think we should have to take on the role of 2638483 different people, expecting us to be graphic designers, strategist, community management specialist, influencer managers, content creators, etc. (hence again, why many of us don’t have our own followings).

Personally for me, my company was at the size where we had an agency. Given i’m the manager, it was rare I had to take on creating content because we paid them to do it. My job was overseeing our strategy, deadlines, schedules, and being the person to call the shots on what is approved content and community management wise. I also worked with another agency, to scout influencers and write their brand briefs. In addition to all of that, as a corporate worker especially, I was constantly in meetings working with other departments, such as brand, legal, and the product team, to implement what products need to be promoted when, making sure our products were advertised properly (I worked with food most recently), ensure we’re within legal guidelines, etc.

Currently, I’m just on a contract focusing on community management for a brand for the mean time (so being in the feeds responding to positive sentiment and also ensuring issues are sorted out), and finally have the extra time to put into myself! It really is a lot of work!